The new cultivar is the product of a planned breeding program, with the intention to develop new interesting Sansieveria varieties for ornamental purposes. The new variety was discovered as a seedling, resulting from the crossing of unnamed, unpatented varieties of Sanseveria ehrenbergii during 2007. Seed was bulk collected, with the exact parentage unidentifiable.
The new variety was discovered by the inventor, Johannes Wilhelmus Maria Scheffers, a citizen of the Netherlands, during 2008, in a commercial greenhouse in Bangkok, Thailand. After identifying the new variety as a potentially interesting selection, the inventor continued confidential testing and propagation of ‘SAN201201’, assessing the stability of the unique characteristics of this variety.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘SAN201201’ was first performed at the commercial greenhouse in Bangkok, Thailand during 2008 by separation of vegetative suckers from the original plant. Access to all plants was restricted, as plants were kept in a greenhouse not open to the public. Through subsequent propagation by vegetative suckers, multiple generations have been reproduced, which have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.